Selling to Healthcare Organizations

Transcription

1 Selling to Healthcare Organizations A study of lead generation best practices for healthcare information technology vendors The U.S. federal government s impact on the healthcare industry has never been greater, and healthcare organizations are responding by spending valuable resources to comply with sweeping healthcare reform and policy mandates. Initiatives such as the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) have challenged healthcare organizations to enhance their IT capabilities like never before. According to a 2012 HIMSS Leadership Survey, organizations are making substantial investments in two major federal initiatives: meeting Stage One of Meaningful Use and successfully converting from ICD- 9 to ICD-10. Both have looming deadlines in Other important initiatives requiring action by healthcare organizations include: Computerized practitioner order entry (CPOE) Electronic health records (EHRs) E-prescribing Patient billing systems All this is creating both opportunities and challenges for healthcare technology vendors. With mandate deadlines approaching, healthcare providers are spending millions of dollars to comply. At the same time, competition for those dollars is fierce. Best Practices Study How healthcare technology vendors approach sales can make a big difference in their success. To identify best practices, LeadJen reviewed campaign records for healthcare companies from These records included a quarter million call and attempts, and more than 30,000 conversations with healthcare professionals. These calls resulted in more than 2,000 qualified appointments, $30 million in sales pipeline and more than $10 million in revenue. The key findings of the study provide a number of insights and best practices that can be used by marketing and sales managers of healthcare technology vendors to improve lead generation. #1 Healthcare buyers are hungry for solutions Regulations in the healthcare industry are driving technology decisions, and healthcare providers are hungry to talk with vendors who can help them achieve compliance. This is reflected in two important metrics: appointments per lead and appointments per account. While an average benchmark is 2 percent for

2 appointments per lead and 4 percent appointments per account, healthcare technology vendors can expect far better results. In healthcare, we found that 3.53 percent of leads converted to an appointment; and a stunning 5.97 percent of accounts converted to appointments, 49 percent higher than in other industries. In addition, these metrics are growing by about 9 percent a year. The overall lead qualification rate in 2012 was 94 percent. 3.5 % 6 % Healthcare All Industries 4 % All Industries 2 % Appointments per lead Healthcare Appointments per account At the same time, qualified appointments are increasing. From , qualified appointments set increased 19 percent. There are a couple explanations for these metrics: Healthcare messages tend to be very targeted and focused on the challenges, dynamics and regulations impacting the industry. Healthcare regulations are mandating action. Federal and state incentives are requiring healthcare organizations to make technology purchases in order to stay in compliance. Best practice takeaway: Customize messages to make them relevant. Test to ensure the messages are resonating. Case Study: PatientKeeper Inc. Before embarking on a lead generation program, PatientKeeper Inc., the leading provider of healthcare applications for physicians, conducted market research that helped them better understand their prospects. This enabled the company to fine-tune the messaging used for appointment setting. Despite a sales cycle of nine to 12 months, the company s sharp messaging and strategic outbound calling delivered 45 appointments and 10 opportunities, and the company is close to closing its first sale in just five months. #2: Healthcare targets are more difficult to reach On average, healthcare executives are more difficult to reach than executives in other industries. This is because healthcare executives field a lot of calls from technology vendors as well as vendors representing other concerns such a medical equipment, pharmaceuticals, etc. Also, since many technology decisions roll up to the parent organization, a large number of sales calls funnel into the same place.

3 This doesn t mean that sales reps shouldn t bother or should give up easily. On the contrary, our study shows that while the majority of appointments are set with the first call, implementing a cadence that is professionally persistent with multiple touches can pay big dividends. In our study, 6 percent of step 6 calls resulted in an appointment and the conversion rate increased over a percentage point from calls 4 and 5 to call 6. and voice mail also play an important role in lead generation, with nearly a quarter of appointments coming from inbound responses to these messages. Inbound responses have been increasing yearly and are up 48 percent over the last three years. It is especially fruitful to implement an + Call cadence on the first day. This gives the caller an to refer to either during a live conversation or in a voice mail message. Best practice takeaways: Develop a lead generation cadence that includes a mix of and calling, and give the cadence long enough to work. Make and voice mail an important part of your mix, and have a mechanism for recording and responding to these messages. Consider adding an midcadence to give prospects another opportunity to respond. 28 % phone call 24 % from a returned phone call or 20 % from referrals Have a system for logging and following up on referrals and requests by prospects for a future follow up date. Best Best strategies to to reach healthcare IT IT buyers buyers Finally, give sales reps a way to capture non-cadence activity, such as referrals and people requesting future call-backs. These activities require the calling rep to log the contact and begin a new cadence. Our study showed that these non-cadence events result in almost 20 percent of appointments set. Case Study: First DataBank Health FDB Health, a drug information data provider for health IT companies, achieved an average 4-to-1 return on investment (ROI) for its lead generation program through a cadence that combined with follow up phone calls. The company achieved a 13

4 22 % 20 % 22% 18 % 18 % Schedule calling early in the week and leave administrative work and and meetings for Thursday and Friday. Best practice takeaway: Lead generation by day percent average conversion rate (prospects scheduled a meeting) and nearly 16 percent of prospects who scheduled a meeting became customers. Since FDB has high customer retention rates, they anticipate the lead generation program will achieve a 20-to-1 ROI over time. #3 Most appointments are set on Monday #4 Executives are most accessible mid-day The best opportunity to connect with a healthcare executive is at lunchtime, when administrative staff may not be screening calls. According to our study, the two strongest time slots for appointment setting are 11 am-noon and 2 pm-3 pm Eastern, which correspond with lunch hours across the country. Appointment setting falls off sharply before 10 am Eastern, and again from 4 pm-5 pm. Sales reps should plan their time so they are calling at the beginning of the week and leaving administrative work and meetings for Fridays. According to our study, Monday is the best day for appointment setting, with Tuesday and Wednesday also being strong days for calling. 5 % % % % On the other hand, appointment setting fell off about percent from Monday s high on both Thursday and Friday. This may be indicative of when healthcare executives schedule their meetings or time off, so they are not in the office. 2 % % Lead generation by hour

5 Best practice takeaway: Schedule calls during mid-day and avoid early morning/late afternoon calling. Case Study An award-winning identity and access management technology provider for healthcare organizations found that their sales reps would close about five strategic accounts a year and would then find their pipelines empty after the latest sales win. To balance out the sales pipeline, the company embarked on a lead generation campaign targeting prospects that hadn t been contacted in six or more months. First, contact data was refreshed, then a strategic and persistent lead generation program began. After the first year, nearly 30 percent of all sales came from outsourced lead generation program. The following year, this figure rose to 72 percent. Summary: The healthcare technology market is benefiting from federal regulations that encourage the implementation of technology solutions that make healthcare organizations more efficient. While healthcare executives can be challenging to reach, developing a strong message and a persistent cadence can improve appointment setting efforts for sales and marketing managers. Further refining calling programs to optimize the day and time executives are most accessible will drive even better results and greater efficiency. Across the globe, LeadJen has developed partnerships and supplied services that increase sales growth through database building, marketing campaigns and appointment setting. These advances enable any company in any industry to improve marketing campaigns and grow sales revenue. LeadJen is consistently blazing past phenomenal benchmarks of appointment generation and pipeline growth. Contact LeadJen 1311 West 96th Street Suite 250 Indianapolis, IN Phone: (877) LeadJen LeadJen.com